How to Access the BIOS

Press the power button once. Then hold down the Volume Down button until the Dell logo disappears. You don’t need a keyboard – it has an on-screen mouse mapped to the touch screen. Cool, eh?

To access the Advanced settings of the BIOS, follow the instructions through Step 7 below:

How to Speed Up SSD Disk Access by Modifying the EFI / BIOS

Thanks to Sasha for the following steps, which can increase speeds by over 50%!

1) From Windows, bring up the charms (swipe in from right)
2) Select Settings -> Change PC Settings, or Start, then All Apps, then PC Settings.
3) Choose Update and Recovery -> Recovery
4) Under Advanced Startup, select Restart Now
5) From this blue menu, select Troubleshoot, then select Advanced Options
6) Select UEFI Firmware Settings, then click Restart
7) Now, the BIOS shows up, hit the on-screen ESC button ONLY ONCE.
8) You’re now in the Main “tab”, with a vertical list of options, from here you must select Advanced, this lets you see all the BIOS settings and is different from hitting the Advanced tab across the top.
9) Select LPSS & SCC Configuration
10) Select SCC eMMC 4.5 HS200 Support and select Enabled (Mine was disabled by default)
12) Select DDR50 Support for SDCard and select Enabled (Mine was disabled by default)
13) Press F10 on the on-screen keyboard to save, then Save Settings and Exit and you’re all set.

Getting Back ~5 Gigabytes of Space by Removing Recovery Partition

The Dell Recovery Partition is essential for restoring your machine should something catastrophic happen. To add insult to injury, Dell often runs out of stock of recovery media, and won’t send you such after a year or two has passed. That’s hit me before, and it’s not fun. So, make sure you’ve backed it up!

Once you’ve backed up that recovery partition, there’s no point in keeping it. Get those gigs back!

Here’s how:

NOTE: Make sure you have at least 50% of your battery left for this process. I wouldn’t do this when hitting the lower ends of the battery spectrum.

Go to All Applications and scroll all the way right to the Dell group. Tap the My Dell application.

Click Backup, even if it says no backup software is installed.

Click the Download Local Backup button. This will provide a link to download Dell Backup and Recovery, which you should download and install. Basically, once you click the Download button, select Run and wait for Setup to do its job. This process can take a long time. Even the download appears to be huge. It’s probably downloading the latest recovery data, but that’s just a guess.

After the software has installed, it will request a restart. So, restart the tablet.

Go to All Applications and back to the Dell group. Note the new Dell Backup and… option. Tap it.

Wait a few moments for the cool clock animation to complete, then agree to whatever terms are presented, or not.

Tap the Reinstall Disks option. This is the equivalent of a Factory Restore partition backup.

Tap USB Flash Drive, which is probably the only real option you have with this unit. This includes use of the Micro SD card, which is what I used, since I didn’t have a USB adapter handy. If you decide to use an external burner, that’s cool, too. But… why?

Select your USB drive, or the MicroSD card. I backed up to an 8 GB MicroSD. Dell estimates the backup at 4.03 GB, so 8 GB should suit you just fine.

Tap Start, then tap Yes when asked if you’re sure about wiping out the USB or MicroSD drive. Of course you’re sure! (right?)

Wait until it’s done.

When it’s complete, click OK, and put the backup media in a safe place. I put it in my Venue Pro’s box.

Go back to Start, then All Programs, then Desktop.

Hold down on the Start button and select Command Prompt (Admin).

Type diskpart to launch the Disk Partition manager.

Type list partition to see the available partitions.

Type select partition X, where X is the number of the approximately 4 gigabyte recovery partition. On my Venue, it was 6.

Make sure you see “Partition X is now the selected partition”!!!

Type delete partition override and hit enter.

You should be greeting with “DiskPart successfully deleted the selected partition.”

Type exit to quit DiskPart, then exit again to quit Command Prompt.

Now that the partition is gone, we need to expand the size of the main partition.

You should see the 4.64 gigabytes or so we freed up showing as Unallocated.

Long press your C: drive and select Extend Volume….

The Extend Volume Wizard appears. Click Next.

You’ll be asked where the space to extend the volume should come from. Everything should already be filled out to assign the maximum unallocated space. Simply tap Next or adjust as desired and click Next.

The wizard will confirm the extension settings. Click Finish.

There you go! Your C: drive is now almost five gigabytes larger!

UPDATE: You can also back up to a USB drive by acquiring a USB OTG, or “On-The-Go”, adapter. Pick one up from Fry’s, SKU number 7582626, here. This will also enable you to use thumb drives and such on your Dell Venue 8 Pro.

Disable the Annoying Backlight

Dell’s power management settings for the backlight are wretched, making the display dim almost all the time. Let’s get around that, shall we?

Swipe out the charms menu, then select Settings, then Change PC Settings on the bottom.

Select PC and devices.

Select Power and sleep.

Set Adjust my screen brightness automatically to Off.

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Unable to get to the Advanced Settings by following “How to Speed Up SSD Disk Access by Modifying the EFI / BIOS”. When I hit the on-screen “ESC” it just reboots. Has this changed with the A04 bios update?

I’m wondering if you can do a system restore without the device having AC power. Since you can’t power the device while your using the OTG usb port, can you even do a system restore from an external device.

Everything worked other than the list partition (I used easeus to delete the partition) and found my way to more storage… your article is appreciated. Every bit of space is important. I would add a couple advice items. 1. Delete the windows updates folder 2.Change location of my docs to a SD card location. Both steps have lots of info on multiple sites.

By using SkyDrive for all my documents, I find I’m not using local storage for those. I sure wish I could install Visual Studio on my MicroSD drive. The installer won’t allow it because it’s not a certified “Windows To Go” removable drive. Grr.

Step 16 – Type list partition to see the available partitions
DISKPART> list partition is giving me message “There is no disk selected to list partitions” Select a disk and try again. What am I doing wrong? What should be the exact command?

When you’re in DISKPART, type LIST DISK, then select the ~32GB drive, which is your SSD. You do this by typing SELECT DISK X, where X is the number shown next to the partition. So, if your SSD is DISK 0, type SELECT DISK 0. Then you can proceed with the rest of the instructions. I’m not on my Venue while I write this, so I’m being approximate 🙂

One small question… I followed the procedure and everything is awesome… but i want to delete as much bloatware as possible… Can I proceed and delete all those dell apps, or do I need them to restore the backup when that day comes? Or perhaps I can just re-install the required utilities to restore the backup when the time comes (if so, which one would that be?)

P.S. Also i have not seen anyone mention that you can actually increase the venues performance by going into the intel grafix app, and selecting 3d, and bump the settgins for quality 🙂 Sure its more drain on battery, but it makes things looks sweeter 🙂

Storage is tight… you can clear out another 2~3GB from unused foreign fonts, disabling super and prefetch and clearing their caches along with the SoftwareDistribution folder. Also, disable hibernation if you need another 2GB. You can also mount the SD permanently and install programs and relocate your Downloads, Documents, etc, folders there. Lastly, rollback to A03 for way better performance.

YOU have just saved me from throwing my Dell Venue Pro out of the Window. I turned it into a Brick and it wouldnt even get to the recovery options. Your tip on how to download the media image was legendary. Merry Christmas!!!!!!!

I wold also like to know how you will be able to use your Flash drive when restoring, WHEN YOUR BACK UP UTILITY WILL REQUIRE THAT YOU HAVE YOUR AC ADAPTER PLUGGED IN?
I am now trying to figure out how to mirror my usb drive into a secondary 8gb microsd card.

Unfortunately, this method does not appear to be supported by Dell. If you try to restore the image created here you will run into a problem: The tablet requires you to have AC power connected to the USB port in order to perform the install. Unfortunately, if you connect AC power, that means you can’t connect the recovery drive!

I would recommend people not use this method to backup. I have posted an alternate, and more powerful, backup method here:

If, however, you have already created the backup using the Dell Backup and Recovery software, and now are figuring out how to restore it, I have posted another tutorial here on how to restore from that image:

[…] to remove the partition, and then use Disk Management to extend the drive into the freed space. This blog post has a decent tutorial. Please be sure to have a backup first. Most recommendations say to make a […]

I just noticed something about my Venue 8 pro today……… my screen is locked to the Landscape mode and it will not auto orient anymore. Standard googling tells me to “swipe, select Settings, then select Screen icon……… but it’s missing……doh!

Tried to use 8gb micro SD for the backup but it did not show under the USB (recognized fine by the tablet) Had to use otg cable and USB flash drive to create the image. If the recovery is not possible from USB as someone suggested (and posted alternate method) I’m speechless that Dell did not think of this on device that is so short on storage. Ideal would be recovery from micro SD.

I have the exact same problem! I hope someone knows a fix. I have found people with similar problems on other Dell PCs (on forums and such), they solved the issue by having the Dell Backup and Recovery software update to version 1.6.4.2 but mine is version 1.6.2.4 and it says it is up to date.

I called Dell technical support but the technician told me the 32GB model doesn’t have a recovery partition… which is false (right?), but I couldn’t convince him otherwise… so no help there.

I have created a recovery DVD as mentioned by Auri. Just for testing, i tried to restore using recovery DVD. After the files are loaded, there comes up a notification- “Please connect AC adapter to continue. Your computer cannot be restored while it is powered by the battery.

Now the question arises. Dell Venue 8 pro has only 1 microUSB port which is used to connect to external DVD drive. So how do i connect the charger at same time?

Hey Auri,
I have it on good authority that the Dell Venue 8 Pro has 2 dormant USB ports that are active on the motherboard but do not have headers attached.

They are there, the issue is finding them. Getting an additional 2 usb ports out of the venue 8 pro would be incredible if only we can figure out where they are…That would allow for using the the top port as a charge-only option just as it should be. (thats the only thing id change about this device)

Do you recommend downloading the firmware update if you have the new active stylus and it’s working fine? Was firmware update 1.0.4.2,A02 strictly for stylus improvement and could it adversely affect my new stylus’ performance?

I don’t have the new active stylus. However, a friend has purchased one and it’s working alright for him. He has noticed an issue with holding the button down and moving the device slowly, where it will act as if the button had been released. Sounds like a driver issue.

From information at the Dell site the requirements and process for imaging the Venue 8 Pro tablet look somewhat challenging and require extra hardware: Micro USB – USB convertor (an OTG adapter), USB mouse, USB keyboard and USB flash. The Article ID is 642954 dated 2014-02-11. There is an older article, 2013-09-17 dealing with system recovery options in Win8.1 on the Venue 8 Pro. In chatting with Dell Tech Support yesterday I was told that it isn’t possible to directly use SDHC storage notwithstanding Auri’s success.

My thought is that I’ve never had to re-image a Windows desktop system and so should I go through this process, especially if mainly motivated by gaining extra storage space. I’ve already added 32GB of Micro SDHC memory and so would I really ever need another ~5GB. 🙂

Have you noticed that when in task manager/memory details that it says 1 of 2 for DIMM slots used? Is there a way to add more RAM?
I’ve had my 8 Pro for about 2 months now and love it for school work and basic web surfing but faster would be better.

Some of you have asked how to boot from the MicroSD. You’re right – you can’t. However, I suggest you try backing up to a USB thumb drive and booting from there.

But it doesn’t have a full USB port, you say? Well, for about $3 you can pick up a USB OTG (“On The Go”) adapter. Then you’ll be able to boot from USB drives by pressing Volume Up when booting, and selecting the UEFI MultiCard Adapter as the boot device. I don’t recall the exact wording, but it’ll be the option other than “Windows Boot Manager” 🙂

This is another trick you can do to save more space on your drive. First install a micro sd card to your preferences and format it to ntfs. Now you can install applications on it or move databases to it. This can save lots of space.

Also has anyone found a fix for sound? I use Spotify on my venue but sound turns off when screen goes to sleep.

Auri: The guide works very well for removing the recovery partition. However, with no apparent way to boot off of the created recovery USB flash drive because AC power is required or the ability to easily restore the recovery partition from the USB drive with the factory data back onto the internal SSD, the backup recovery is essentially worthless.

I think the right thing to to is to edit your blog post stating this and that people will have no way to easily restore their tablet to factory default or reinstall windows if their system because corrupted if required.

For less than US$10 (including shipping) there are OTG (“On The Go”) microUSB –> USB adapters with a “Y” cable that provides another standard USB connecter to allow you to use the A/C charger while restoring your Venue’s image from a USB drive.

Good morning Auri,
I was reading your blog and I wondered if there are other Dell Venue 8 users who ran into the same problem as I do. When I turn the device off with the button top left, then it happens frequently that the device goes into some “coma” mode and I can only get it on again after a reset. This is an annoying situation.

There are a number of sites who blame it on certain MS updates. I removed the mentioned ones, but it gives me no solution. So I hope there is someone out there who knows what to do. Apparently my 30 years of experience in IT work are not enough to solve the problem 😉

Thanks in advance for any recommendations on what to do.
Greetings Fred

Fred – did you install the latest ROM? I’ve noticed with my Surface as well as the Venue Pro that sometimes the device simply won’t come back on immediately after pressing the power switch. However, if I wait a few minutes it works again. It’s sporadic and I don’t know what causes it. Probably a MSFT bug that needs fixing.

Hello again… Here is a recent article or which may offer some tips/tricks to establishing a Win8 boot disk plus recovery with the option to delete built-in recovery files. I’m still curious about the need for external power while in recovery mode and whether the dual purpose cables (power and data) work noting the link (above) is for Samsung devices.

Dell seems to have a cable for the Venue 8 and 8 Pro (according to a just completed chat session) with a Dell Part # of A7223619 and Manufacturer Part # of 27320. It costs just $2.99 via Dell dot com while customers in Canada will pay $10.49 (plus tax) at Dell dot ca. Go figure…

I recently had to send my tablet back to Dell to have the USB port fixed. When I got the tablet back, the settings have been changed for the internet explorer. I can no longer view pictures on Pinterest or Google. How do I change the settings back?

You can try resetting your Internet Explorer settings in its menu, or go to the Internet Options control panel and selecting the Reset Defaults options under the Security and Advanced tabs. I’m not sure why the settings would have changed.

Good Morning… I just discovered/purchased a Memorex 2-in-1 micro 16GB USB thumb drive OTG from TheSource in Canada at an promo price of $20. This device has micro and regular USB tips to easily transfer data between desktop and tablet. It does exactly what I want without the need for an OTG adapter. 🙂

I have this tablet for a month already and I’m surprised how good it works. Has some limitations on data storage and peripheral connections but nothing that can not be worked out thru a network connection. I have it connected to my home network sharing HDD and there’s 2 desktop computers sharing HDDs. Watch unlimited movies and listen to my music like if has 2 terabytes storage. And $229 it is a gift. Buy a Bluetooth mouse and you’re all set to go..

how do you reset bios for dell venue 8 pro, i try to update the bios of my venue 8 pro and suddenly shutdown due to maybe battery drain, after charging it I try to power on and it was no longer working even i press it for more than a minute it just blink the orange led when pressing the power button and i noticed that it emit heat at the back even no sign on screen

The current issue of the Windowssecrets dot com newsletter discusses BIOS/UEFI password protection. The author says: “Explore the UEFI setup utility’s tabs and dialog boxes to find the password settings. They’re often found on a tab labeled Security, or something similar.” I’m curious if other DV8P users have enabled password protection and whether there are any downsides… I suppose both types of passwords are needed because of the cool way mentioned way above to access the BIOS with the power and volume buttons.

One “downside” to password protecting via the BIOS is that the space to enter a password is really really small. It took me a few tries to get it right. I’ve since removed them feeling that it wasn’t worth the effort. The WindowsSecrets article also says “In fact, UEFI is the foundation for Win8′s Secure Boot feature, which is enabled by default when Win8 is installed on a UEFI-equipped PC.” I don’t recall DV8P Secure Boot but maybe that is what is happening when I have to enter a PIN to get things going at the start screen. I guess there is more reading in my future… 🙂

Hello, I am interested in getting this device. The only potential issue is that I am a linux user and I do not use winblows. Has anyone successfully installed any linux distro, arch, fedora, ubuntu, openSuse, etc… and if so, what was your experience like? Most importantly, did the sound, wi-fi and bluetooth work? Thank you for your support.

To answer your first question, yes, I have done research. The only issue that I have found is the lack of legacy boot and 32-bit uefi, which I have heard was addressed in a fairly recent kernel patch. As far as drivers, I’m not too worried about, those since Linux, through udev, can auto detect most hardware during early-init. Another concern, at least to me, is can secure boot be disabled? And if you were to repartition the storage medium, will their still be any dependence on windows at the firmware level?

If you mean for the BIOS settings, that’s probably because you have one of the newer BIOS versions, which disable access to some options. I’m not sure if that’s what you meant, so leave a comment if I’m misunderstanding 🙂

There are a couple of things I’ve noticed recently with my Venue 8; first, it seems to require a longer “push” of the on-button to turn on the system. At one time it seemed pretty much instantaneous but now it takes upwards of 10 seconds pushing/holding the on-button. Has anyone else noticed this and could this be a problem later or is it a normal occurrence?

Second, I have a nice leather case for the Venue 8, and there seems to be many other cases available via the usual online retailers including rubber, leather, etc. However, there seems to be a fair bit of heat generated by the Venue 8 and I wonder whether a case hinders the release of heat so much so that parts can be damaged or wear out prematurely. If I recall correctly Dell sells a case for this tablet, but I haven’t seen/used it. My guess is that heat won’t be a factor, but the tablet does seem to get warm.

I just found/read this article from How-To Geek, WIMBoot Explained: How Windows Can Now Fit on a Tiny 16 GB Drive, which can be found at http://preview.tinyurl.com/m45qqv8 The bottom line seems to be that while we can probably install/use it on our V8 Pro tablets, it probably isn’t worth the time, trouble, and slowdown.

Regarding freeing up space on your Venue x Pro: You don’t need the Dell software. It’s a GIANT hog of space. Just go to the Control Panel in Windows, select “Recovery” and then select “Create Recovery Drive”. You’ll need a USB or other drive with a minimum of 8 GB in size, and you WILL lose any data on it, because Windows will reformat it. Create your recovery drive. Windows will then “offer” to delete the recovery partition on your Venue (at the bottom left). You can click this and it will delete the recovery partition without having to do anything else! Just don’t lose your recovery drive! Once you create it, if you ever need to restore your system, you can do so – just plug the USB drive into the Venue, and boot from it!

Thanks, Karan… but, alas, my link was removed by the program being used on this list. So here is the link http://tinyurl dot com/kah47am slightly modified (which you’ll have to change back) and here is the other link http://tinyurl dot com/p86z4xt although the A09 list really isn’t all that helpful.

I recently purchased the Dell Venue 8 Pro 32GB & added a 64 GB Micro SD card. I should get 12 mbs on my WiFi (At&T U-Verse). I do get 12 mbs on my lap top and on my Android phone but consistently only get less than 3 mbs on the Venue. Any idea why?

Hey I want to move the recovery partition to a USB key but I keep hearing that you won’t be able to restore because it wants AC power during, which can’t be done while a USB device is attached. Is this just for the quick restore option, cause I don’t think this would be an issue if you do a the long reinstall option?

You should also mention disabling hibernation with the command: powercfg.exe -h off
This deletes the hiberfil.sys and free’s up 1.5gb. Since one no uses hibernate on tablets the only thing you lose is the fast boot, which hibernates only the kernel. Oddly enough I didn’t notice any change in boot times when I did this. And yea I actually timed it.

hi, I lost touch even in the bios, anyone know how to restore it? I tried installing the driver from the website but it keeps saying synaptics controller thing not detected. I hope someone can help. I have bios a10.

While using the touch screen keyboard I see the usual letters along with an option to switch to a numeric keypad. However, I also see “numbers” across the top row of “letters”. How do I use the letters/numbers without switching? I thought there might be a toggle of some sort to shift from letters to numbers, but I haven’t been able to find it. Any suggestions? Many thanks…

Is it possible to transfer MS Office software license from the Dell Venue 8 Pro to a Dell Inspiron 15 ???

My Venue 8 came with some nifty MS Office software, which I’ve rarely used. I’ve just purchased a Dell Inspiron 15 with Windows 8.1 and so it would be really nice to transfer over the Office software. Has anyone done this? My Venue 8 came bundled with Office so maybe it is OEM restricted to the V8 unit.

My guess is it’s non-transferrable due to the OEM license you mentioned. However, I feel it’s worthwhile to call Microsoft or Dell to ask the question. It may be faster, and less aggravating if they say No, to tweet them. 🙂

Hello again… Has anyone tried upgrading their V8Pro Win8 to Windows 10 and have you been asked for your product number/key? Belarc Advisor and Magic Jelly Beans seem not to identify the correct key and the box doesn’t include the key although it does include the MS Office key (inside). Does anyone have a suggestion on how to get Win10 for this tablet? Many thanks…

Good Morning… I checked my Win8/8.1 product key with a number of utilities and it is always the same and so for some reason it isn’t working with a Win10 iso on a USB memory stick. I guess the question is really whether anyone has installed the Win10 upgrade to the Dell V8Pro? Many thanks…

Everything is good now. I had to repeat the Media Creation Download and rerun the install. As for enough space to put the Win8.1 rollback I directed the setup to put it on a microSDHC memory card. When all was finished and Win10 activated I checked Dell for new drivers, etc. and there is a new A11 BIOS upgrade.

Ready Boost – Useful or Not ??? Given the relatively small amount of DV8P RAM and storage space I’m wondering if ReadyBoost enabled on a microSDHC memory card would improve performance. If you’ve used RB, then what size memory card and how much was devoted to RB? I have 32GB internal storage with a 32GB card, and so would 4GB for RB be the right amount? Many thanks…